Section Zero
by arielsnow
Summary: Kagome, a normal student studying at Tokyo University, suddenly finds herself caught in the middle of brutal murders. She is forced to look for help in the only people who are able to give it: Section Number Zero of the Tokyo police force.
1. Case One

**Section Zero**

_by Ariel_

**Case One**

Kagome stared at the scene before her in poorly masked horror, her naturally gray eyes bulbous and threatening to burst from their respective sockets as she found herself unable to tear away from what was in front of her, almost as if forcefully glued to the spot.

She was unable to stop the cold, uncomfortably wet shudder that ran up her spine as the smells of the beginning of decay swarmed into her nostrils, as if someone were playing their ice-cold fingers across the smooth planes of her back.

In front of her lay the unmoving body of Ayumi, one of her closest friends since high school, her once bright chocolate eyes dimmed and impossibly round, as if to be able to capture the image of her attacker even while being brutally struck down. Several knife-wounds were visible, mostly on her upper body, neck and face. Her long dark-honey hair was in messy clots splayed across her battered body, her limbs twisted amongst themselves in a sickening way that defied nature.

The slightest sound of dried blood cracking against the pungent air brought every last nerve end of Kagome's senses alive and the first tears to her eyes, and then her lips trembled, breaking into a terrified scream for help before everything became but a blur.

The image of Ayumi's very dead body pasted itself onto her mind and she was unable to stop the sobs coming from her own lips even as she heard urgent footsteps climbing the staircase leading up to the top floor of the school building, as the door to the open roof area slammed open, and as shocked gasps sounded from just behind her.

Everything but the battered body of Ayumi was in a haze.

When Kagome regained most of her consciousness, she was sitting in a less than comfortable stool, a bright light shining into her abused eyes and a solemn-faced woman in police-wear sitting across a black metal desk opposite from her. The pure white walls around her seemed to close in on her in rhythm to the ticking of the three-legged clock on the wall just behind the officer's head, and Kagome just barely stopped herself from whimpering due to the pressuring room that had her encased.

"At what time did you discover the scene?" Kagome almost jumped at the first words that were spoken. The voice of the officer was gentle but indifferent, and it failed to sooth her frantically beating heart as it worked itself overdrive.

"Around five in the afternoon, my classes for the day had just ended," Kagome responded, surprised momentarily that her voice didn't seem to betray her unease in the sense that it came out quite smoothly.

She noticed the small recording device sitting silently on the smooth surface of the desk, its black body slightly camouflaged against the equally dark color underneath, and vaguely wondered who would be listening to the tape after the interrogation was over.

"Can you remember if there was anyone else up on the roof besides yourself?"

Kagome had to think this over before coming up with her answer. Everything was still a little hazy and she had been way too focused on the sight of her friend's body upon entering the roof area to see if there was anyone else there.

"No, I don't remember if there was another person there, but usually the roof is vacant at this time."

Her answer to the previous question brought on the next."What were you doing up there, then?"

Unconsciously, Kagome pulled both of her lips between her teeth in an act of nervousness, stretching her philtrum for anyone to see, a habit that she had developed from childhood.

"I... use that roof as a hide-out sometimes, because not many students know of it and normally there wouldn't be anybody there at all. I go there to look at the sky and to get some air, nothing else."

"Does the victim go there with you sometimes?"

Kagome shook her head before answering, "no, she has never gone there with me before, in fact, I have never taken anyone with me to the roof. I'm always alone, beside the rare occasions that some people I don't know goes up there to chat amongst themselves, or single persons going up there to take a breather like I do."

The officer looked rather thoughtful for a split second, then shifted her eyes downward to a piece of paper beneath her clasped hands, no doubt printed with some basic information of the case, of the interrogated, and of some important questions that needed to be asked. Then her eyes returned to meet Kagome's, before she continued.

"Now, I will begin asking you some questions regarding the victim, and your relationships with her. I hope that you will give us as much as what you can tell us so that we can rest this case as soon as possible." The officer paused and waited for Kagome to give her nod, and then began the questioning anew. "How well do you know the victim, Shihara Ayumi?"

"We have known each other since the first year of high school because we were in the same class," Kagome began, a stinging in her heart making itself more and more impossible to ignore by the moment as she recalled the beginning of her friendship with Ayumi. She felt her eyes began to water, and willed herself not to let the drops fall, "after we got into the same university, our friendship deepened despite being in different departments. For a couple of weeks following the start of school, we had lunch together every day and occasionally had sleepovers with our other friends from the same high school."

The officer offered her a tissue as she began to sniffle, and she accepted it with careful fingers, not using, but rather tucking it under the palm if her hand. "Do you know if she is currently in any relationships?"

She shook her head, "she currently has no boyfriend that I know of."

The rest of the interrogation went by with several more questions regarding Ayumi's family and other friends, to which Kagome answered to the best of her knowledge. Minutes that seemed more like hours ticked by, and Kagome was more than relieved when the officer announced the end of their session and both of them stood, one just as eager to leave as the other, if only to get away from the stuffy atmosphere brought on by the brutal case.

Kagome found herself being led to the door by another police officer, and was asked to finish a couple of forms at the front desk before she was handed a card with two phone numbers on it.

"Thank you very much for your cooperation, Miss Higurashi, if you happen to run into any problems or have any information that you would like to inform us of, please call these numbers and we will try to provide you help immediately."

Without looking carefully at the content, she mumbled her gratification and shoved the card into her backpack with her textbooks. She hurried to the exit of the police station, wanting more than anything at the moment to free herself from the uncomfortable air that coated her from head to toe.

The way back home was nearly as uncomfortable as her time in that police station, as she could focus on nothing but the state of restlessness and tiredness of both her body and heart. The cab reached her self-rented apartment and the driver jolted her from the jumbled mess in her brain with his statement of arrival. Handing him the exact amount for the fare, she quickly scurried into the building then the elevator box, and pressed the button for her floor, fumbling as she did so.

How she wanted so much to be in the safety of her home just a second quicker.

Reaching her door, she once again fumbled with her keys, having trouble placing it perfectly into the locks with her hand shaking like she were on drugs. Finally open, the door slammed shut the moment she was inside, and Kagome felt her legs give out from underneath her body, suddenly too heavy for her trembling legs to withstand. She slipped down, back against her door until she was in a sitting position on her carpeted floor. Then she felt a wave of sadness as everything that had happened just earlier hit her once again, this time with more force than she could take, and she could no longer suppress the wails and sobs that racked her frame.

She cried for an hour before exhaustion finally lulled her into a fitful sleep.

.

A/N: From the boredom of long vacations and a freaky dream I had the other night. I dreamt that people around me were being murdered one by one in school, and I was the next to be killed. I was called into the staff room where teachers and staff members offered help, and I had to figure out who the murderer was before I was killed. Luckily I was able to solve the mystery and survived the dream. Hehe!

Short chapters like this will help me update quicker so please bear with me. :) Please let me know what you think! Second chapter is WIP.


	2. Section Number Zero

**Section Zero**

_by Ariel_

**Chapter Two - Section Number Zero**

Beside a black metal plate reading _Section Number Zero_ was the door leading to a large, rectangular room with similarly white walls as to the rest of the police station. One set of dark-colored sofas was placed neatly to the left half, and five mahogany desks sat to the right. In the middle, up against the far wall was a projector, dividing the room into clear sections for working and resting.

The room was brightly lit despite its lack of occupants, save for one person sitting behind a desk, the computer screen placed at his left dark and cold, and large, calloused fingers absentmindedly drummed against paper as he finished absorbing the information laid before him.

Closing the cover of the interrogation report for his newest case, Takahashi Sesshoumaru contemplated the answers of the interrogated, Higurashi Kagome, who was supposedly the first person to witness the bloody murder scene. The section captain Hoshikawa Miroku had handed the report to him at approximately eight thirty that night, and requested - _ordered_- that he finish assessing the case and come up with a formal written report before he went home.

Their captain usually only came by in the mornings to give out orders and divide work among the team, but this case had been so urgent that Sesshoumaru found himself forced into working over-time so that the team would be able to begin on the case first thing in the morning the next day. He heaved a breath slightly heavier than he did others, and once again opened the folder containing information of the wretched case.

The section's interrogator, Takumi Sango, had placed red check marks next to paragraphs of her report that she saw fit to receive extra attention, and he settled his gaze onto a particular part that obviously piqued the curiosity of both their interrogator and he himself.

For cases such as this one, they would usually look into the possibility of it being a crime of passion. Information of the victim's relationships would be collected from friends, family, classmates and teachers. It was not uncommon for one to kill in the name of love despite how very wrong it was, and many very brutal murders were the result of not being able to obtain that love. It was a very serious black hole in the current society that very much needed attention, leaving some people almost afraid to reject affections from unwelcomed sources.

The procession of this case would not be any different, but there was a very apparent suspicious point in Higurashi's deposition that would not be able to be explained by a crime of passion. Higurashi, who had claimed to be a good friend of the victim, had discovered the rotting body that afternoon on the roof where she herself frequented. There was no reason for the victim to be up there unless it was the dump scene, and even then there would be little reason for the murderer to have dumped the body where it was discovered: right at the entrance of the roof area. It was as if the murderer _wanted_ the body to be discovered, and _planned specifically_ for Higurashi Kagome to do so.

Sesshoumaru frowned then, pushing the fingers of his left hand into his long, silver hair in what could be deciphered as mild anxiousness. Of course it was not impossible, although nearly so, that Higurashi had committed the crime herself. But that would require her to be of a very unreadable, calculative mind, a trait that did her little justice according to the files that Kirai Shippou had collected earlier that evening. Although Section Zero was not one to convict someone before proven guilty, that possibility would still be stored on file for future reference if investigations pointed them in that direction.

Pressing the button to bring his computer to life, he waited as it booted and began a detailed report, entering the data into a file with fast, trained taps of his fingers against the traditionally loud keyboards. First he prepared a detailed review of the crime scene that the section's first-scene investigator Yoshimura Yura had collected along with photos of important evidence, and then he began a timeline of the events that were related to the case.

He paused as he reviewed the time of death that the coroner sent with careful consideration. According to the autopsy report, the victim was stabbed more than ten times on the shoulder and back before one stab at the back of her neck punctured her main artery, which was considered the fatal blow that caused her death. After that, there were several more stabs to her neck and face before the killer finally stopped the cruel attack. The time of death was approximately nine in the morning on that same day, eight hours before the body was found by Higurashi Kagome, at which it was already starting to decay and smell due to the catalyzing of the afternoon sun.

Even Sesshoumaru felt his toes curl in uncomfortable disgust as he reread the autopsy report for the second time. Although Section Zero specialized in brutal murders and received all such cases that came to the department, there was rarely one as savage as the one sitting at his desk.

There had to be a lot of hate in a person to be able to do something like this to another human being. That or the perpetrator really enjoyed bringing unpleasant surprises to the police force.

Finishing the report with one last tap of his finger, Sesshoumaru looked up to glance at the clock situated high up on the wall in front of him, ticking innocently loud and leaving him quite a displeased man to see that it now read quarter past ten and he had worked for nearly two hours; two hours of the already sparse time he was supposed to have free. He scowled to himself as he printed the file and placed it in a new folder on his boss's desk, and then began to put away his things to finally go home.

But, just as Sesshoumaru had suspected, his brain did not allow his attention away from the tiresome case, and unable to pry himself away, he continued to dwell on the mystery yet to be unraveled even as he entered his car and drove the short distance to his home. He was still contemplating how to go about investigations as he rode the elevator to the top floor of the building and reached his door. Turning the lock with a twist of the keys, he entered the dark, empty apartment and seated himself on his sofa, eyes closing and hand reaching behind his neck to free his silky hair from their confines in the form of a graceful ponytail.

_Tomorrow_, he promised to his tired mind, he would begin his investigation. For now, he dearly needed a good rest.

.

Morning at the Tokyo Police Department was in the least of Sesshoumaru's favors; the bright lights bouncing off the white wall hurt his eyes and more simply put, he just wasn't a morning person. As he entered through the front door at seven thirty, the uniformed man sitting behind the front desk cheerfully greeted a good morning, one which the receiving party only gave a slight incline of his head in return. He walked past the front area and into a long hallway, passing doors until he reached the one near the end of the hall that read 'Section Number Zero'.

The door opened immediately to reveal Miroku's solemn face, a pair of reading glasses sat upon the lower bridge of his nose as he skimmed the report that Sesshoumaru recognized immediately to be the one he had left on his desk the day before. Upon his entrance, their captain's eyes lifted to meet his, and they brightened with a light sparkle, obviously glad that the members of his team had finally arrived in full. He moved to stand from his previous position leaning with his back to the front of his own desk, and clapped his hands together to receive attention from everyone in the room.

"Would everybody please gather here." Miroku announced in a loud, but firm voice, and was satisfied as the team of four gathered in front of him. He began handing out booklets that contained the information needed for understanding what was happening with the new case on their hands. "As all should know, yesterday evening we received a new murder case which was discovered at Tokyo University, and all of you have already been sent to complete a job relating to this case. An already dead body was found on the roof of the university, whose identity has already been confirmed to be Shihara Ayumi, a freshman in the Business Department.

"There are around twenty knife wounds, most of which are on the body's chest, back, neck and face. The cause of death is a deep cut to the back of the victim's throat, causing hypovolemic shock followed by failure of the heart and other organs."

Stopping, Miroku looked to Yura for her to continue his description with her personal observations of the scene. The woman who was in her late twenties ran carefully manicured fingers through her smooth, shoulder-length black hair as she summed up what she was going to say in her mind.

"Blood trails and spatters from both the walls and the floor indicates that this roof is where our murder took place," Yura began slowly, and reached to gather some photos from her desk showing her teammates the trails and spatters that she was speaking of, "as you can see, there were no drag marks and very few transfer bloodstains, and there were many medium velocity impact spatters indicating these stains are in fact from wounds caused by the stabbing of a knife. Arterial spurting is found on the ground around the victim's body, which is where our victim bled profusely until her heart gave out."

"Doctor Yasashi has cleaned up the body and has sent us the report from the autopsy room," Miroku continued as Yura finished her verbal report, "there are slash wounds on the victims hand and also the top of the right hand index finger has been sliced off. The victim was desperately trying to defend herself from the sudden attack, and some skin tissue has been collected from under the victim's nails, possibly from the perpetrator. If we can match the DNA we have collected to someone she knows, we just might be a whole leap closer to setting this case."

Miroku looked thoughtful for a bit, and began to divide jobs amongst the team.

"Shippou and Sango, you two will find people who are related to the victim - her family, friends, exes - and find out if there is anybody who hold dislike, or even hatred for the victim. I want a list of suspects on my desk with detailed reports as soon as you are able.

"Yura, you will head to the lab and process any new evidence that comes in during this time.

"And Sesshomaru," Miroku said at last, bringing his dark-purple orbs to meet honey-colored ones, "you will be in charge of keeping a close eye on the witness, Higurashi Kagome, and try to get any information from her that she has not already disclosed."

Closing the folder in his hands with an emphasizing 'snap', Miroku dismissed the group quickly, almost merrily with a wave of his free hand. "Now, get to work, everyone!"

As everyone set off to do what they were assigned in a scurrying bustle, Sesshoumaru sat at his desk and pulled the informative files of Higurashi Kagome from its temporary home at the top of his drawers.

'Higurashi Kagome, Tokyo University freshman, majors in Physics,' he read mentally as he skimmed the content that he had thoroughly read just last night. Then he saw her current resident address and suddenly stared at it like he had just seen it for the first time, his brain processing the street name and wondering why it was so familiar.

Maybe because it was the name of the street on which he lived? Not only that, their gate number was only a couple of numbers away, which gave probability to...

A quick search on Maps proved his suspicions correct. They actually lived in the same building, his apartment on the top floor and hers on the sixth. Although his facial expression didn't show it, his brain was complaining how it wasn't very glad to have such a troublesome person living inside _his_ building.

'_At least,_' another part of his brain supplied, '_you'll basically be working at home!_'

.

A/N: Glad that I made it to the second chapter! I'm not planning to delve too deep into details of the murder any more than this because I'm no expert and it practically took half of my lifespan to squeeze this chapter from the womb. Please don't berate me for scientific errors that I may have made! QQ Also, I put Sesshoumaru and Kagome in the same apartment building to help develop their relationship, because I honestly believe romance can't possibly happen between two such different individuals in the little time that I plan to give them. I'm hoping that I won't have to drag out the length of this fic.

Motivate me by reviewing! :)


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